Railroad-cab



J. H. JONES.

Car- Coupling.

- Patented Apr. 10, 1855 Toy all l JAMES Jones, on SCIO, NEW YORK.

RAILROAD-CAR couPLinG.

i 1 Specification of Letters Patent No. 12,680, dated April 10, 1855.

Be it known th at I JAMES Joints, of

f I which the coupling termed, separated, and FigflQ, represents thesame two parts con-' nectediso as to form the coupling-)ifSimilar*lettersifin the figures 'denote like parts.

1 Various forms of ear couplings that are intended to1be self connectinghave been devised, but in nonejojf them are found the ele= fment which Iclaim, link coupling ap -J preaches it nearest, but even these must bestraightened up orlat least examined to see that they arestraightgbeforethe cars are. run uptobe coupledl But I do not usea ,Clllik at all, sothat this? class of couplings cannotbe considered the same as mine.

mManyother couplings have been essayed which have a maleandmfemale head,catch- 1 ing intoeach other, :and holding by shoulders and springs.Thiskind also requires ipersonalinspectionflor attention before they arecoupled, asftwomale, or two female heads may come together, in whichcase there isno coupling formed. In my inven- 1 tion bothheads are; maleheads, and will "couple regardless of whichends of the cars cometogether, and doafnot require any pre vious arrangement or inspection asthey; are

always ready tocouple. v j The nature of myinvention consists in makinga car coupling of two pieces without qalink, eachpart or half being soformed, asfthat the two will always couplewhen I 7 brought togetherregardless of the particularx ends of the carsfiwhich are broughttogether.

enable others skilledin the art to make and usewmy invention, I willproceed I to describe the same with reference to the drawings. v j 3 1A, A,represent;two parts of thecoupling which may be exactlyfalike inevery particular, and may be. made of any suitable material. 0,0, arethejaws on each, which when the cars are run together, interlock,

. TED'S ATE PA T OFFICE" h and are held together by the springs D, D.

These springs D, D, do not simply serve the purpose of holding theshoulders of the jaws together, but also serve as guides fordirectingthe jaws together, until the jaws pass each other, when thespring throws them together and holds them in place. The inchned planeson these jaws must stand vertically, and facing each other, or nearlyso; If placedhorizontally the same difficulty would exist, that doeswith the male and female head, for in this case both planes may beidownor up, and nocoupling could beefiiected without first changing one ofthe pair. It is to avoid this personal inspection of the. position ofthe parts that I aim, and I have so contrived the two partsthattheengineer may back up his train to a single car and couple it, withoutany previous arrangement of the coupling.

i E, E, are the holes for the bolts to pass through, by which the carsare drawn. These holes I have made so that my coupling maybe used on anyof the ordinary draw heads. But it may be a permanent fixture on carswhen built specially with a view to their use, in which latter casethere would be nothing which could be carried away, as in ordinarycouplings.

A few of these couplings should also be carried with a curve or bend inthe shank F, so as to unite cars which may be of variable height, asisnow'done with links when used. Having thus fully described the natureof my invention I would state that, I am aware thata patent was grantedto Joseph D. Alvord on the 18th September 1849, for a car shackle inwhich two horizontally placed hooks, one at each end of the car,attached to the hunter, so formed, and so attached, that on bringing thecars together,

the hooks will fall, into socket-s into the respective opposite cars.This I do not claim as my invention is an improvement upon Alvords. Nordo I claim a car coupling wherein a link, or itssubstitute is used atall. Neither do I claim a car coupling wherein a male and female catchare used, because they require to be changed at times, as two male, ortwo female catches will not form the coupling, but

What I do claim as of my invention, and the particular ends of the carswhich may be desire to secure by Letters Patent, brought together,substantially as described.

A car coupling without a link, which may be a permanent fixture on thecar, and each JONES 5 half so formed as that the jaws or hooks willWitnesses:

always couple or catch, the one with the A. B. STOUGHTON,

other, when brought together, regardless of THOMAS H. UPPERMAN.

